The Western Week - Day 5

Sorry everyone for backlog post... Anyways, day 5's dinner is...

*Drum rolls*

Pan fried breaded cod served with chilled potato salad and fresh green vegetables. Plus a homemade tartar sauce.

We had a free drink too! Well, sort of - TheLoyalFan looted from our Hall's summer party. 

Another really simple dish. The breaded cod was bought in a box at the frozen section and just pan fried them. Wished I had an oven and that would be much easier... That way, I wouldn't be cleaning the newly 'decorated' kitchen with oil splatters : )

Other than that, the sides were repeats from previous dinners... hehehe. Fast and simple for me! ^_^

As for the tartar sauce, it was an attempt to finish up our big bottle of mayonnaise. I've added some finely chopped pickled gherkins in a bowl and squeeze a huge dollop of mayonnaise. Then I seasoned it with some salt and  pepper. I also poured a teaspoonful of juice from the pickled gherkins. Mixed them up, et voila!

The cod was erm... hmmm... quite okay... Well, it was like having fish & chips at our local western food stall back home. Very simple and edible lah! The tartar sauce was kinda chunky because I chopped too many gherkins... but I like it! Yum Yums! Perhaps I should squeeze some lemon juice the next time when I make tartar sauce.

TheLoyalFan says: 'I was slightly disappointed with the fish fillet, it tasted like a huge fish nugget.  As a result, it tasted really oily. The tartar sauce was great though... Never knew it was so easy to make.'


Cost for Day 5: GBP 3.00 for 2 pax.

Yum Woon Sen - Thai Glass Noodle Salad

I've tried this dish when I was in Bangkok about 2 years ago. This salad really 'opens' your appetite. We wanted to learn to prepare this dish since we had extra glass noodle in our cupboard. However, we didn't know what is it called in Thai. So, we started googling and googling... and finally, we managed to google out the dish! Happiness and excitement filled us as we read the recipe and watched some videos about it too!

It turns out that this dish requires some time and effort for the preparation although ingredients were easily bought in any supermarket. And so the preparation begins with cutting up some garlic, wood ear fungus, tomatoes, bird's eye chilli, coriander and basil leaves. Squeeze out lemon juice from a lemon and if you like, you can grate some zest for it too!

Next, prepare the mince pork in stock. What I did was stir fry the pork for a couple of minutes. Then pour in water with chicken cube and boil them for about 10 minutes. If you have pork cubes, I think it would be splendid : ) While letting the pork simmer away, blanch the wood ear fungus and some shrimps. And, not forgetting the important ingredient - the glass noodles need to be boiled until it is cooked (it will turn transparent).

Once all the preparation is complete, this is the simplest part - mixing them all together. And also this is where your saliva will start drooling too!!! Hehehehe... it affected both of us at this stage : P

Firstly, put in the garlic and chilli into a mixing bowl. Then pour in equal amounts of lemon juice, fish sauce and sugar. This means that if your lemon juice is 5 tablespoons, then it will be 5 tablespoons of fish sauce and sugar. When you mix the lemon juice and fish sauce, my oh my, the aroma is so good that it makes your taste buds tingle and the sudden flood of saliva in your mouth too! (This is speaking from experience...lol) Give it a good stir to mix up the stuff, and taste. If you find it too sour, add in some sugar to balance it out. 

Once the 'dressing' is good enough for you, put in the rest of the ingredients. Snip the glass noodle a couple of times so that it helps to 'trap' the goodness from the dressing and other condiments when you are mixing the ingredients in your bowl. If you find the noodles are abit dry, pour in a couple tablespoons of stock from the pork. And... voila! It is completed!

I feel this is one of the most tedious dish I have ever made. Lots of chopping and blanching but the outcome was very fulfilling. We noted that the chilli and garlic were very strong and we'll probably need to reduce the portion for both. Apart from that, it was a success and we're looking forward for another round of this fantastic salad!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Very yummy... especially in the cold. I like that they call it a salad. Allows me to eat more... hehehehe'